By now she had morphed into someone else, and we were walking through a shopping mall.

her: "I see this long list of nears on your forehead."

me: "Nears?"

her: "Nears."

me: "Wait, you mean N-E-A-R-S?"

her: "No, N-E-R-A-S."

me: "Can you explain what the heck those are?"

her: "I think we're going to have to introduce you to someone who can work that out."

Note
Cursory research on the foreign word root "nera" suggests it relates to "impatience".

She led me through the crowded mall, which had noisy music playing. I thought the music was going to wake me up... to stay in the dream I started singing my own lyrics to it, it was an unfamiliar song.

We wound up in a dark room with a gathering of people kneeling in a circle, all wearing black jackets and leather gloves, surrounding a leader. I went to gather a jacket and a pair of gloves that was on the floor, which I somehow recognized as my own. One guy pointed at me and spoke in a stern tone.

him: "What are those, legs?!"

me: "Yes, I... I need to put on my jacket."

him: "Well the man doesn't like it."

Note
The implication I took was that it was a problem that I was still standing, and needed to kneel in the circle around the leader.

Once I'd knelt in the circle, the girl who had accompanied me to the room made a declaration.

her: "Sheila's not coming back."

someone: "Why not?"

The leader pointed at me.

leader: "This man is the military. And one of the nicest people around. If he had to make a decision, then it was probably the right one."

Note
I guess there was an accusation that I'd been responsible either directly or indirectly for Sheila's death.

Currently I am experimenting with using Disqus for comments, however it is configured that you don't have to log in or tie it to an account. Simply check the "I'd rather post as a guest" button after clicking in the spot to type in a name.

The accounts written here are as true as I can manage. While the
words are my own, they are not independent creative works of fiction
—in any intentional way. Thus I do not consider the material to
be protected by anything, other than that you'd have to be
crazy to want to try and use it for genuine purposes (much less
disingenuous ones!) But who's to say?